What do you think?
Rate this book
The Possibility of an Absolute Architecture
Architectural form reconsidered in light of a unitary conception of architecture and the city. In The Possibility of an Absolute Architecture , Pier Vittorio Aureli proposes that a sharpened formal consciousness in architecture is a precondition for political, cultural, and social engagement with the city. Aureli uses the term absolute not in the conventional sense of “pure,� but to denote something that is resolutely itself after being separated from its other. In the pursuit of the possibility of an absolute architecture, the other is the space of the city, its extensive organization, and its government. Politics is agonism through separation and confrontation; the very condition of architectural form is to separate and be separated. Through its act of separation and being separated, architecture reveals at once the essence of the city and the essence of itself as political the city as the composition of (separate) parts. Aureli revisits the work of four architects whose projects were advanced through the making of architectural form but whose concern was the city at Andrea Palladio, Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Étienne Louis-Boullée, and Oswald Mathias Ungers. The work of these architects, Aureli argues, addressed the transformations of the modern city and its urban implications through the elaboration of specific and strategic architectural forms. Their projects for the city do not take the form of an overall plan but are expressed as an “archipelago� of site-specific interventions.
251 pages, Paperback
First published February 1, 2011
40 people are currently reading
458 people want to read
About the author
Pier Vittorio Aureli
34Ìýbooks59ÌýfollowersPier Vittorio Aureli studied at the Istituto Universitario di Architettura di Venezia and later at the Berlage Institute in Rottedam. Aureli currently teaches at the AA School of Architecture in London and is visiting professor at Yale University. He is the author of many essays and several books, including The Project of Autonomy (2008) and The Possibility of an Absolute Architecture (2011).
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
June 1, 2011
I am beginning to have more faith in architecture's ability to create change at the urban scale within the plots of individual buildings. Although I am still not convinced Etienne Boullee ever had a project for the metropolis, the other three chapters were very well argued for. They offer very impressive and convincing readings of projects/drawings that I would not have conceived before while ensuring that each example pushes forward Aureli's specific thesis for an architecture of the city.
I must also admit that I like Aureli more than I probably should.
I must also admit that I like Aureli more than I probably should.
November 30, 2014
Its difficult to read, not convinced about Boullee, loved the rest but no images for the final Ungers Berlin project? Still best thing I've come across for ages and ages.
October 21, 2021
Interesting book with thought provoking title.
Word 'absolute', as Aureli's explains, comes from latin 'ab-solvo' which means 'freed from' or 'separated from'. Simply said, 'absolute architecture' stands for the architecture that makes explicit its purpose to separate and to be separated from. Following that thread of thought, Aureli explains the connection between the formal and political, trying to explain the possibility of „political� purpose of the architecture. „Action versus situation or object versus datum: these are the poles through which the notion of formal materializes.�
The book is divided into 5 chapters and contains architectural drawings/ illustrations/photographs of presented projects.
The first chapter (Toward the archipelago) is actually an introduction in which the main themes and terms are presented (archipelago, urbs, polis, civitas, form, techne oikonomike-techne politike, urbanization; Hilberseimer's theory, Archizoom's No Stop City, Mies van der Rohe..). It is densely written and I found it somehow hard to follow so in the end I had to re-read it in order to glue all of the pieces together. Archipelago is a recurring theme, maybe the most important one. Every next chapter deals with one architect or project (or set of connected projects) through which Aureli tried to explain in detail concepts laid out in the introduction.
The second chapter is about Palladio's villas of Veneto region ('Geopolitics of the ideal villa') that explains the Serenissima's economical and political downfall and consequently its shift from the sea to the countryside during which Palladio played noticable role. �(...)Palladio's villas are not simply objects enclosed within a reconstructed context (...), but are specific objects that frame and redefine the existing landscape as an economic , cultural and political counter to the city.�
The third chapter brings the story of Rome and the projects for its renewal in the 18-th century. This chapter is as interesting as the previous one. I was surprised to learn about Lex Romana (perhaps „one of the first detonations of the Renaissance period�). What I like the most about this chapter are cartographic representations of the city and concepts/intentions behind each one of them.
The forth chapter is about Boullee. Although he referred to his own work as project for a metropolis, he never made a single masterplan. The story of Boullee dealing with a city only thorugh architecture (not through urban design or planning) empowers Aureli's concept of archipelago. „This evolution of architectural pedagogy based on attributes such as clarity, austerity and the combinatory logic of form would serve as the foundation of Boullee's simple forms. Yet Boullee's monuments would transform these attributes from their normative control of the city into an archipelago of finite formal and spatial „states of exception�.
The main topic of the last chapter is the most recent project among those presented in the book � Berlin as a Green Archipelago by Ungers, Koolhaas (and others). Besides presenting other Ungers' urbanistic projects, this chapter also tells the story of Ungers' and Rowe's professional collaboration and ultimately their separation as well as how Koolhaas met Ungers and entered the architectural scene. „Berlin as a Green Archipelago is one of the very few projects in the history of city planning to address an urban crisis by radically shifting the focus from the problem of urbanization � the further growth of the city � to that of shrinking the city.�
The majority of the presented projects is described through the lense of emphasized separation between the architecture and the city (or urbanization). The space between the architectural artefacts (the „sea� in which „islands� are scattered) is described in an abstract and general way and there is almost no mention of its form nor materiality � the centre of this book are islands. In one interview, Aureli said that he is focused on studying the in-between spaces at the time, so it would be really interesting to read a book which explores the other side of the coin. Overall, I think that few more links between the projects and criticised concepts would be useful for getting a clearer picture of certain themes. Nevertheless, this book gave me a lot of food for thought.
rating: 3-4
Word 'absolute', as Aureli's explains, comes from latin 'ab-solvo' which means 'freed from' or 'separated from'. Simply said, 'absolute architecture' stands for the architecture that makes explicit its purpose to separate and to be separated from. Following that thread of thought, Aureli explains the connection between the formal and political, trying to explain the possibility of „political� purpose of the architecture. „Action versus situation or object versus datum: these are the poles through which the notion of formal materializes.�
The book is divided into 5 chapters and contains architectural drawings/ illustrations/photographs of presented projects.
The first chapter (Toward the archipelago) is actually an introduction in which the main themes and terms are presented (archipelago, urbs, polis, civitas, form, techne oikonomike-techne politike, urbanization; Hilberseimer's theory, Archizoom's No Stop City, Mies van der Rohe..). It is densely written and I found it somehow hard to follow so in the end I had to re-read it in order to glue all of the pieces together. Archipelago is a recurring theme, maybe the most important one. Every next chapter deals with one architect or project (or set of connected projects) through which Aureli tried to explain in detail concepts laid out in the introduction.
The second chapter is about Palladio's villas of Veneto region ('Geopolitics of the ideal villa') that explains the Serenissima's economical and political downfall and consequently its shift from the sea to the countryside during which Palladio played noticable role. �(...)Palladio's villas are not simply objects enclosed within a reconstructed context (...), but are specific objects that frame and redefine the existing landscape as an economic , cultural and political counter to the city.�
The third chapter brings the story of Rome and the projects for its renewal in the 18-th century. This chapter is as interesting as the previous one. I was surprised to learn about Lex Romana (perhaps „one of the first detonations of the Renaissance period�). What I like the most about this chapter are cartographic representations of the city and concepts/intentions behind each one of them.
The forth chapter is about Boullee. Although he referred to his own work as project for a metropolis, he never made a single masterplan. The story of Boullee dealing with a city only thorugh architecture (not through urban design or planning) empowers Aureli's concept of archipelago. „This evolution of architectural pedagogy based on attributes such as clarity, austerity and the combinatory logic of form would serve as the foundation of Boullee's simple forms. Yet Boullee's monuments would transform these attributes from their normative control of the city into an archipelago of finite formal and spatial „states of exception�.
The main topic of the last chapter is the most recent project among those presented in the book � Berlin as a Green Archipelago by Ungers, Koolhaas (and others). Besides presenting other Ungers' urbanistic projects, this chapter also tells the story of Ungers' and Rowe's professional collaboration and ultimately their separation as well as how Koolhaas met Ungers and entered the architectural scene. „Berlin as a Green Archipelago is one of the very few projects in the history of city planning to address an urban crisis by radically shifting the focus from the problem of urbanization � the further growth of the city � to that of shrinking the city.�
The majority of the presented projects is described through the lense of emphasized separation between the architecture and the city (or urbanization). The space between the architectural artefacts (the „sea� in which „islands� are scattered) is described in an abstract and general way and there is almost no mention of its form nor materiality � the centre of this book are islands. In one interview, Aureli said that he is focused on studying the in-between spaces at the time, so it would be really interesting to read a book which explores the other side of the coin. Overall, I think that few more links between the projects and criticised concepts would be useful for getting a clearer picture of certain themes. Nevertheless, this book gave me a lot of food for thought.
rating: 3-4
January 12, 2022
A concise argument (that individual, autonomous, architectural projects can establish clear positions on the city) clearly argued through reference to four distinct architects and their corresponding contexts. Quite dense, but with some lovely illustrations.
I especially liked the historical stuff…Buildings as islands of radical difference.
I especially liked the historical stuff…Buildings as islands of radical difference.
October 31, 2017
Must read for architects and not only.
January 3, 2020
Really enjoyed reading the book.
December 10, 2023
Knowing that an architecture exists anywhere seems in some ways to occlude 🦚 the main discussion here.
December 30, 2012
As an unashamed plea for architecture's relevance to cities in a period of blatant irrelevance, Aureli's theory is more heartening than flimsy (though it is both). But as a history linking four architects both critically and *politically*, and then extrapolating "anti-urban" strategies for contemporary use, this book is fascinating.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
Can't find what you're looking for?
Get help and learn more about the design.